Friday
We woke up Friday morning and made our way to the airport. We found really reasonable tickets to Busan so we chose to fly instead of take the train. We got on our flight no problem and about 45 minutes later we were landing in Busan. We walked around the airport for a few minutes trying to get our bearings, found some tourist maps, and got on a random bus. Luckily Kaley has an IPOD touch so she had the Busan subway map already. We rode the bus for about a half hour and got on the subway. We got to the area of our hotel and realized we couldn't check in yet, so we walked around. We were in a really shoppy area...so we eye shopped for a while and found a Japanese place to eat.
This is Kaley with her Frazzle Rice. She said it was really yummy!
This is me with my Donkus and soup. It was simply delicious! I love Donkus...I am pretty sure it is one of my favorite dishes.
After we were finished eating we walked around. We found a HUGE black market area right off one of the side streets of the shoppy area and we spent about 2 hours wandering through the maze of shops. We happened upon a temple. They were having all kinds of celebrations for Buddha's birthday.
There were lanterns everywhere! They are so colorful and beautiful!
Since the weather was GORGEOUS! We decided to check into our hotel and get ourselves to the BEACH because we heard it was supposed to rain or be gloomy the rest of the weekend. It didn't take us long to ditch our stuff and get on the train for the beach. We decided to go to one of the smaller beaches that was just a little bit closer to our hotel. We thought it would be less busy.
While we were at the beach I took some pretty great shots of these kids who were playing right next to us. They were super cute and they were entertaining themselves really well. The only things they had to play with were some seaweed and a plastic bag. These kids were so neat to watch. They got along well with each other and were very creative in their play.
So Kaley and I were sitting on the beach and we were trying to figure out what to do next when all of the sudden I looked down the beach and said..."Ummmmm Kaley correct me if I am wrong but is that Laura?!?!" So she got up and looked and said, "Yes! Oh my word and there is Ian!" So we walked down the beach to say hi to our church friends. In all of Busan that were at the same beach and sitting about 50 yards away. We walked down and said hi and then decided that we would spend the evening with them and their friends.
One thing I am quickly learning about Koreans is that they love fireworks! We were standing on the beach and a peddler kept coming buy and trying to sell us roman candles and sparklers. A lot of people were buying them. It was fun to watch them light them they were letting little kids hold them, sticking them in the sand, and I even saw one guy put it in his mouth and pretend like he was blowing them out. It was crazy!
The Beach with the bridge at night.
We went out for Galbi with the crew. It was a lot of food and a lot of fun! We had a great time with everyone!
Saturday morning Kaley and I slept in a bit and then we went to get some breakfast. We ate at Dunkin Donuts and Kaley got a doughnut with pop-rock like sprinkles...it was very strange. Then we went back to wander through the market. We found a whole new section that we didn't even see the day before!
We found a lot of AMAZING things...first and foremost were these glasses. We both decided that we needed to have them and to get our prescriptions in them...just kidding! These were outrageous! Very typical Korean glasses!
After wandering around the fish market we decided to head over to the HUGE fish market. Who did we see there? John, Laura, and Ian! We knew they were going there but we ran right into them first thing! It was crazy that we kept seeing them.
We wandered around the fish market for a bit. Laura and John started talking to a guy who spoke English and they discovered that we could buy a fish, have them prep it for us, and then take it upstairs and they would cook it. It sounded pretty reasonable so we all decided this would be a good option for lunch. They guy, who spoke English remember, told John and Laura that a large lobster would be about 5,000 per kg...this is about $5. We thought...wow that is cheap! This clearly should have been our first red flag. So, we picked out a lobster. Then we also picked out a really large fish. The guy told us the price and again it sounded really good...So he proceeds to cut the head off our fish, descale it, and prepare it half for sashimi (raw) and have for barbecue. We are pretty pleased with ourselves at this point for getting such a good deal on fresh fish for lunch. He has it all prepared and then the woman who is going to cook it for us comes down. Then the man who speaks English remember suddenly forgets all his English when he tells us the price. He told us we owed him 180,000 won! We all looked at each other like WHAT?!?!?! We told him that there had obviously been a misunderstanding and we couldn't pay 180,000 won. The problem was he had already killed our dinner. Laura starts negotiating, Holly is scrambling to collect money, and John is showing the fish man his empty wallet. We ended up paying 150,000 won...which ended up being about 25 dollars per person, then we headed upstairs. We all sat around the table a little stunned and a little punchy...because we either just got robbed or swindled or our Korean really sucks and we lost A LOT in translation. We decided to make the best of it and enjoy our fish. It was delicious! We all agreed that the cooked fish was the best. But we were all happy to have tried Sashimi.
The fish story, however, does not end there! When we were finished eating we were walking out of the restaurant and the woman grabbed my arm and held up a finger. I instinctively knew she was going to charge us more money! So, I said to Ian, Kaley, and Laura....go go go go go! So we all started booking it out of there. In the madness we lost John. He was behind us talking to some people he knew. The lady didn't forget John though...she grabbed him and told him we owed 80,000 won. To which he replied, "I have no money, I have to go and get my friends." He ran out of there and we booked it right out of the fish market. And that folks is how I dined and dashed...I don't even really feel guilty about it because I think they were trying to swindle us.
After the fish market we decided we would go and check out China town. Laura was safe and dry underneath her umbrella. After we explored China town for a bit it started to rain hard. We found solace in a coffee shop and sat there for the next two hours. It was great.
Kaley and I soon decided that we should be on our way back to our hotel. On the way we stopped off at Lotte Mall...a huge mall in Busan. We went to the rooftop lookout even though it was raining...We stayed up there long enough to snap this ridiculous picture and then got ourselves right off the roof!
It was rainy on Sunday too...so we just hung around the hotel watching Sumo wrestling on TV then made our way over to the airport. We really did have a great time in Busan. It was a lot of fun!
Holly
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